LC0aVC3

The Society of Mind: by Marvin L. Minsky, Donner Professor of Science and Toshiba Professor of Media at MIT

Themes: The Society of Mind: mini-theories and representations bridging computing and the brain

Source: (Lawler) Cognitive Science and Education: the future within our reach:
a series of Invited Talks at Purdue University, 1988-1989
This panel is linked directly from “Mentors” in the right sidebar and the Introductions page, LC0aV, which serves as a directory to all these talks.

Abstract: a useful response to the Selfridge challenge: 300 mini-theories
This presentation was in the week following the death of Feynman, a personal friend and colleague of Minsky’s. Following soon after publication of
the Society of Mind, the presentation circles around aspects of that work with both comments on the book and attempts to present examples, but it is
enriched as well by Minsky’s reflections on Feynman’s thinking. (There may even be a hint, to those familiar with QED, that Feynman’s insight that
clear reflection is a consequence of interference/cancellation of unaligned photon flows serves as a model for the emergence of decisions from societies
of agents by administrative cancellation/repression of weaker agents.)
Though often considered an iconoclast (even so characterized by Lawler in the Selfridge introduction), many will be surprised by Minsky’s remarkable
statement of his appreciation of Buddha in answer to the first audience question (in pane “f” below).